Miners well-armed for tax fight

The Minerals Council of Australia has a war chest of almost $8 million to fight the federal government’s ­resources rent tax, giving the peak lobby group plenty of financial ­firepower to extend its aggressive campaign.

The lobby group, which counts all the major miners among its members, has begun a national print advertising campaign, launched a website and is running attack lines via ­Twitter.

An MCA spokesman said it would continue to run full-page print advertisements sporadically, although it had ruled out targeting members of parliament before a likely federal election this year. “We’ve ruled out running a marginal seats campaign, but everything else is on the table," he said.

The council’s 2009 accounts show that at December 31 it had retained earnings of $7.8 million, after a big increase in member contributions over the past five years.

The accounts show the MCA received $11.6 million in funding from its members last year – nearly 40 per cent more than in 2004.

The MCA spokesman said about half its retained earnings were invested and were being used for outgoings such as rent every year.

The campaign against the resource rent tax follows the aggressive stance taken by the council and the Australian Coal Association against the now-defeated emissions trading scheme.

The ACA said it would leave campaigning on the resources rent tax to the MCA.

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State mining bodies in NSW and Queensland will also not run their own advertising campaigns against the new tax, although both have heavily criticised the federal government. But the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia has refused to rule out its own campaign. Its chief executive,
Reg Howard-Smith
, said the new tax threatened the development of iron ore deposits in the mid-west region of the state. Mr Howard-Smith has called the tax a handbrake on the industry and the national economy.

Before the 2007 federal election, the MCA was part of the so-called National Business Action Fund that campaigned against Labor’s plans to scrap the Howard government’s Work Choices legislation.

The fund, which also included the Business Council of Australia, state chambers of commerce and other ­employer groups, spent $6.8 million on a print and electronic media ­campaign.

But this was dwarfed by the ACTU’s campaign to have Work Choices abolished. The ACTU spent $14.4 million on broadcast advertising and a further $1 million on print media and opinion polling in the lead-up to the 2007 election.

The campaign by the National Business Action Fund was an effort to counter the financial power of the union movement, which gives the ­Labor Party a huge funding advantage over the Coalition.

Before the last federal election, federal and state Labor Party branches raised a record $83.9 million, while the Coalition’s overall income rose slightly to $59.9 million.